My goodness, I’ve been trying to publish this post for AGES! Silly things keep getting in the way like, aftershocks and rehearsals for a play which opens tomorrow night! So, here are a bunch of links which I’ve been hoarding for your pleasure. Enjoy!

Ever wondered what you call a group of gnomes? Or the correct term for a collection of archangels? Don’t you just wish you had a handy chart to look up stuff like this? Once again, we at Trolleyed are here to help. Read on, dear Reader, read on.

Books & authors

A couple of great posts on Scott Westerfeld’s blog recently. The first one, Genre Cooties, addresses some of the negative press that steampunk had been attracting. However it was this quote that really resounded with me:

THIS is why I don’t write for adults. Their heads are all full of genre cooties and “Taj Mahal? Nah, don’t like tombs.” Whereas a kid will come home from the library with a mystery, an sf novel, an autobiography, and three books about sharks. That’s how kids read, and when something’s cool and fun and awesome (or weird and gnarly and thought-provoking)

That got me thinking….why do we lose that open minded attitude to books? We do tend to get set in our ways, and in the types of books we read. So, how do we change it? How do we challenge ourselves to be less adult (and boring) and more child-like in our selection of books?

Scott’s second post French Steampunkery is about his visit to Machines of the Isle in Nantes, France. This photos in this post had me squeeing with delight. The steampunk creations are just magnificent. The elephant is awesometastic.

YALSA (The Young Adult Library Services Association) now has an official research journal. The journal is open access and is peer-reviewed. It is sure to be a useful resource for those working and studying in the CYA area.

Techy/interwebby stuff

Google’s 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web – this is full of useful answers to all sorts of computer stuff (y’know – all that stuff that you were too afraid to ask anyone in case it made you look stupid). I love the presentation too – very nice.

And last, but definitely not least….a very handy chart for you to print out and stick on your fridge. A list of the collective nouns for supernatural beings (and my apologies, I can’t remember the source for this chart). My personal favourites are a lawn of gnomes, and that The Borg is just that – The Borg. Not so sure about a fondle of unicorns though.

“As if we haven’t been bearing the buzzing sound of vuvuzelas enough in the last couple of days, YouTube has decided to grace us with a dedicated vuvuzela button. The football-shaped button sits in the lower right corner, and does precisely what you feared: It produces the dreadful vuvuzela sound. If you haven’t been following the World Cup, and you’re not familiar with the term “vuvuzela”. It’s a plastic horn that produces a loud monotone that takes all of about five seconds to get on your nerves. Oh well. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!”

Items featuring some of our talented staff and their families

Riccarton Players – Cinderella – Highly recommended viewing these school holidays is the Riccarton Players’ Cinderella – starring our very own Rachael Chamberlain!! Do go along and support the talented Rach, and support our local theatres. Tickets are excellent value at $8.50 (plus a 50c booking fee),and you can book them through The Court Theatre’s KidsFest booking site .

And in theshameless self promotion category– I now have a blog – The Book Witch. I have been on the latest CCL Learn wave – which I can highly recommend. When you get a chance to do this – snap it up! Part of it is to start a blog, which is a nerve wracking experience. However, I must admit, I am a teeny weeny bit hooked, and I am now craving feedback. If you have time, please have a look. Keep in mind I’m just a newby – but any comments/constructive criticism would be most welcome! Be gentle though, I’m a sensitive soul.